The Arts, Research, and Culture House (ARCH) building, located on Locust Walk at the heart of the University’s campus, has been reimagined to make the entire facility available to multicultural academic centers and student groups. Based on visioning exercises and input gathering sessions conducted by O Z Collaborative with student leaders and university staff, the project team identified a series of selective improvements to create vibrant, culturally inclusive spaces for events, meetings, and community-building.

Work includes four floors of targeted interventions including: refreshing cultural resource center offices and group study rooms; on the ground floor, restoring a space converted into a commercial kitchen back into flexible event space, seamlessly integrating it with a larger assembly space, creating a glass-enclosed student resource lounge with built-in bookshelves; adding a glass-enclosed vestibule to improve access to two independently-usable meeting rooms; designing a custom mobile security kiosk that can be stationed as-needed for building events; updating a kitchenette with new casework, equipment, and finishes to support both student use and event catering; replicating an historic entry door with glass lites to add visibility for a student organization’s office; and dedicating a prayer room with culturally-appropriate finishes.